The leftists on Twitter are in an uproar over a 15 year old roofer who fell to his death in Alabama in 2020. They are firing off post after post, claiming that Republicans don’t want to protect children. They are, however, leaving out an important part of the story.
The missing fact? The child laborers who are being injured are illegal immigrants (referred to in this link as “migrants”). The employers in this case are already hiring them illegally and paying them less than minimum wage, so labor laws protecting children really won’t do anything in these cases.
In fact, the $100,000 fine levied against the roofing company for hiring the child labor is peanuts compared to what these companies save by hiring illegals for less than minimum wage. Go to any construction site in the US, and you are likely to find illegal immigrants- what the left euphemistically calls “migrants”- being the majority of the workforce. A roofing company that employs 10 people at $8 an hour is saving a quarter of a million dollars every year that they continue the practice in Florida.
According to salary.com, a roofer in Alabama makes around $30k a year. Now imagine that you are employing illegals for half that. A ten man crew would save you $150,000 a year in salary alone. Then there is unemployment, the Social Security match, benefits, and other costs that you don’t have to pay, even though you are breaking a dozen laws in the process.
But a child labor law will matter.
10 Comments
Max Wiley · February 28, 2024 at 10:15 am
Let me explain how this broken system operates.
There is one guy of Central American background that is legal, or at least using a citizen’s social security number. He operates an LLC as a subcontractor. The primary contractor subs the work to him at piece rates, with a signed contract that all laws and regulations will be duly followed *wink, wink* to protect the primary contractor legally. The immigrant subcontractor then gathers up all of his extended family and their friends to serve as labor. I had this explained to me by a second generation Mexican American drywall contractor. “It’s just how business is done.”
I work in a licensed trade where citizenship and a zero defect work ethic are not optional, so I have little to fear when it comes to being replaced by immigrants, but the illegal labor scam is everywhere else: framing, drywall, painting, concrete, masonry, roofing. Steel erection is maybe one of the last unlicensed trades that is still done by heritage Americans.
I don’t know how they are getting by with this when it comes to 1099 tax liability, I figure the IRS must not be looking very hard at them or maybe they simply aren’t filing.
Meanwhile, our independent contractor is not officially married to his wife, so she knocks down maximum welfare assistance for herself and the kids while drawing just enough from the LLC to get the max Earned Income Credit. It’s the biggest scam on hardworking middle class Americans that can be imagined, we are largely training and funding our demographic replacements.
Contracting at the company owner level is a cesspit of corruption and kickbacks, so I think there is only one solution: make employment of illegals a civil liability matter and connect it to the contracting chain all the way up the ladder to the General Contractor. But that would require significant political will that just doesn’t seem to be present. The frog is getting well and truly boiled.
JoshO · February 28, 2024 at 11:53 am
Don’t employ contractors that use illegals. If you know who they are then sabatoge their trucks.
Jester · February 28, 2024 at 12:48 pm
Honestly if there was any care about the invasion from either side of the isle this would be a non factor. I’d say start with raiding these companies and doing spot checks for suspected illegal labor. Or should I say near slave labor. Perhaps the fines start at 100k PER illegal immigrant found. In pretty short order there’s not going to be a lot of companies willing to take the risk of being fined in to oblivion. Suddenly there’s not the lure of coming over illegally if no one wants to employ you.
Aesop · February 29, 2024 at 8:57 pm
The fines should only be for the first five illegals you find.
Starting with six, you seize the business under RICO, and arrest the senior HR person, the CFO, CEO, and all co-owners of the business, and prosecute them for racketeering, and furthermore seize all their personal assets, including bank accounts, cars, and homes.
Do that once, on Monday, and this ends nationwide by lunchtime, and by 5PM, the line of cars packed up and heading back to Mexico backs up traffic from the border to 40° N. latitude from the Pacific to the Atlantic.
By Friday, “Press 1 for English” is removed from every phone system in the country, and you can’t find an illegal in America south of the Arctic Circle.
Gerry · February 28, 2024 at 12:49 pm
We have twist on this locally.
The roofer contracts his labor from another business. He needs ten laborers and the company makes sure they are on the job site when needed as long as they are needed.
The labor company actually provides the warm bodies to all the roofing contractors in the area. This company will do the estimates for the roofers for an additional price. The owner is a naturalized citizen from northern Mexico but most of his workers are from El Salvador or Honduras.
I can see some benefits from this relationship to the roofing companies.
Bad Dancer · February 28, 2024 at 1:12 pm
I worked construction during summers well before 15 as a go-fer and kept working my way up or around crews from framing to heavy equipment. The illegal crews were insular and could either be great guys or massive violent gangs.
When I worked in the chicken processing plant I was routinely threatened by illegals with the line knives to get me to quit or in retaliation for reporting illegals. The inspectors would show up, go into the managers office and leave with a padded envelope and nothing would ever be done.
Not that republicans are any better about this, what with the uniparty defending them as essential workers, but the politicians and bleeding hearts importing and defending them are almost always insulated from the reality of their presense. “But what about authentic THA-MAH-LEEES?!” types.
Dirty Dingus McGee · February 28, 2024 at 2:40 pm
Illegals on construction sites isn’t new, just more pronounced these days. Sometime in the mid 80’s an ATL news crew had a helicopter over a construction site that was being raided by ICE. There were dozens of workers jumping out of windows and doors and hauling butt into the woods. A couple of weeks later they sent a hidden camera crew in to see what might have changed. Not a damn thing, business as usual.
GreenCross4Safety · February 28, 2024 at 3:50 pm
Al.com and alreporter.com are both lefty sites. Migrant my eye, they are invaders.
oldvet50 · February 29, 2024 at 6:49 am
This would not be a problem if we did away with all government welfare and oversight. We would not have the immigrant problem nor a justice system that acts like a lottery win for claimants if we could drastically reduce the government. That may occur of its own accord the way we are headed.
Rob · February 29, 2024 at 8:12 am
Fine such as this are routinely reduced upon appeal. The company will wind up paying a small fraction of the $100,000 now imposed. It’s a joke. One more instance of government providing lip service but doing nothing.
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